Jonathan Rosenbaum (scholar)

Last updated
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Born28 March 1947  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (age 74)
Pontiac   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Education Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Alma mater
OccupationUniversity teacher  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Employer

Jonathan Rosenbaum (born 1947) is an American scholar, college administrator and rabbi; president of Gratz College. [1] [2] from 1998 to 2009; president emeritus of Gratz College and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, since 2009. He is a specialist in Biblical history, the paleography and epigraphy of ancient Semitic languages, and American Jewish history.

Contents

Life

Rosenbaum was born in Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he received his B.A. with high distinction and highest honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (1968).[ citation needed ] Rosenbaum then earned rabbinical ordination and an M.A. (1972) at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute in Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization from Harvard University in 1978.

He taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska from 1976 to 1986 and then became the University of Hartford's first Maurice Greenberg Professor of Judaic Studies and director of its Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies from 1986 to 1998. At Hartford he was also professor of history, served as acting chair of the department of history, and established a major and minors in Judaic Studies and a joint master's degree with the University of Connecticut. He conceived and helped guide the Henry Luce Forum in Abrahamic Religions, a program jointly sponsored by the University of Hartford and Hartford Seminary and devoted to advancing scholarship concerning and mutual understanding among American Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Rosenbaum also initiated and oversaw an awards program that recognizes the best public and private school teachers of Holocaust studies in New England.[ citation needed ]

From 1995 to 1998 Rosenbaum served as a deputy director of the Ein Gedi Archaeological Expedition in Israel, an excavation co-sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Hartford. At Ein Gedi he oversaw the excavation's academic program including courses in archaeology and Near Eastern history.

He also organized and chaired "Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East," a section of the national meeting sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature. [3] In addition, he taught in the graduate and law schools of the University of Connecticut and at Hartford Seminary.

A rarity in the contemporary Jewish world,[ citation needed ] Rosenbaum has served as a rabbi in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregations. During his student years at HUC-JIR, he held a student rabbi position at Congregation Israel (Reform), Galesburg, IL (1970-1972). While at Harvard he was assistant rabbi, Temple Israel (Conservative), Swampscott, MA, (1972–76), and then a part-time rabbi of Congregation Israel (Conservative), Danville, IL (1976–84). From 1994 to 1998 he was rabbi (mara' de-atra) of Congregation Agudas Achim, a mainstream Orthodox, century-old congregation in West Hartford, CT.

Among the awards he received were Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, by HUC-JIR and Doctor of Hebrew Letters, honoris causa, from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

At Gratz College he instituted new academic programs including a doctoral degree and online courses and degrees, expanded the faculty and staff, successfully oversaw development, and refashioned Gratz's mission in a changing academic climate. [4]

Selected publications

Notes

  1. "Leadership/Notable Alumni | Gratz College". www.gratz.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-02-28.
  2. GRATZ COLLEGE TO INDUCT BIBLICAL-STUDIES EXPERT AS ITS NINTH PRESIDENT , by Valerie Reed, 1999-10-17, Philadelphia Inquirer
  3. Society of Biblical Literature
  4. Berenbaum, Michael (2007). "Rosenbaum, Jonathan". Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. 17: 432.

Related Research Articles

Moshe Greenberg was an American rabbi, Bible scholar, and professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion American graduate school of religion

The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion is a Jewish seminary with three locations in the United States and one location in Jerusalem. It is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, California and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.

Sally Jane Priesand is America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion on June 3, 1972, at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati. After her ordination she served first as assistant and then as associate rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, and later led Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. She is featured in numerous books including Rabbis: The Many Faces of Judaism and Fifty Jewish Women who Changed the World.

Jewish studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history, Middle Eastern studies, Asian studies, Oriental studies, religious studies, archeology, sociology, languages, political science, area studies, women's studies, and ethnic studies. Jewish studies as a distinct field is mainly present at colleges and universities in North America.

Lawrence Schiffman

Lawrence Harvey Schiffman is a professor at New York University ; he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies. He had previously been Chair of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU). He is currently the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Institute for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.

David Ellenson American rabbi, scholar, and academic administrator

David Ellenson is an American rabbi and academic who is known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. Ellenson is currently Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Visiting Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University and interim President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He previously served as president of HUC-JIR from 2001 to December 31, 2013, and is now Chancellor Emeritus of that college. Ellenson is currently serving as interim President following the death of his successor, Aaron D. Panken.

Gratz College Private Jewish college in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, Unites States

Gratz College is a private Jewish college in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origins to 1856 when banker, philanthropist, and communal leader Hyman Gratz and the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia joined to establish a trust to create a Hebrew teachers college. Gratz is a private liberal arts college located in a suburban setting and is primarily a commuter campus with online courses.

Walter Jacob is an American Reform rabbi who was born in Augsburg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1940.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman is a former rabbinic leader in Reform Judaism. He is a past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In 2000, Zimmerman was suspended from the CCAR after an inquiry regarding inappropriate sexual conduct revealed a pattern of predatory behavior, including fondling and kissing a teenager. He subsequently resigned as the 7th president of HUC-JIR which he had led from 1996–2000.

Temple Beth Israel is a Reform synagogue located at One Bowman Street in Plattsburgh, New York. Established in 1861, it served Plattsburgh's Jewish population and itinerant Jewish tradesmen in the region. After worshiping in temporary locations, the congregation acquired its first permanent home on Oak Street in 1866. Beth Israel adopted Reform services in 1910, and joined the Union for Reform Judaism in 1913.

Naamah Kelman American-born Rabbi (born 1955)

Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi is an American-born Rabbi who was named as Dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus in Jerusalem starting in July 2009. In 1992, Kelman made history as the first woman in Israel to become a rabbi when she received her rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk.

Karen Soria is an American-born rabbi. She became the first female rabbi to serve in Australia when she joined the rabbinical team at Temple Beth Israel, a progressive Reform Jewish synagogue in Melbourne, in the 1980s. She later served as a chaplain for the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Navy; she was the first woman rabbi to serve in this capacity for the Marines, and the second in the Navy. After moving to Canada, she became the first woman rabbi to serve as a chaplain with the Canadian Forces.

David B. Ruderman is the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 to 2014 he was the Ella Darivoff Director of Penn's Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, where he also held a fellowship from 2017 to 2018. He was trained at the City College of New York, the Teacher's Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Columbia University. He earned rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and his doctorate in Jewish History from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to taking his position at the University of Pennsylvania, he held teaching positions at Yale University and the University of Maryland.

Seymour Gitin is an American archaeologist specializing in ancient Israel, known for his excavations at Tel Miqne-Ekron. He was the director of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem from 1980 to 2014.

Abraham Skorka Argentine biophysicist, rabbi and author

Abraham Skorka is an Argentine biophysicist, rabbi and book author. Abraham Skorka is rector emeritus of the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires, the rabbi of the Jewish community Benei Tikva, professor of biblical and rabbinic literature at the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano and honorary professor of Hebrew Law at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires.

Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is The Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and History at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

Peninsula Temple Sholom

Peninsula Temple Sholom (PTS) is a Reform Jewish Congregation in Burlingame, California. It was founded in 1955, and since then, has constantly grown its congregation and has expanded its facilities to include a social hall, a Religious School and a Preschool. For five decades, its services were led by Rabbi Gerald Raiskin, who changed the legacy and history of the temple until his passing in 2006. Throughout the years, PTS clergy and lay leaders have continued to lead services for hundreds of reform Jews in the Bay Area and is an influential place for them to find community and practice Reform Judaism.

Lance J. Sussman

Lance Jonathan Sussman is an historian of American Jewish History, college professor, Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA and the senior rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (KI) located in Elkins Park, PA. He is the author of numerous books and articles including: Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995) and Sharing Sacred Moments (1999), and a co-editor of Reform Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1993) and New Essays in American Jewish History (2009). Since 2010 he has also published articles on Judaism and art.

Judith Reesa Baskin is a religious studies scholar at the University of Oregon in the United States. She is Associate Dean for Humanities, Director of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, and the Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities. She held positions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Yale University, and State University of New York at Albany, prior to accepting a faculty position at the University of Oregon in 2000. She was appointed Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences in July, 2009.

Aaron D. Panken was an American Reform rabbi and academic administrator. He served as the 12th president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.